Penthouse Nightclub Raids and Sex Work Displacement

The closure of the Penthouse Nightclub in 1975 is often seen as a cause for the rise of street sex work here in the West End. This nightclub, located on Seymour Street, had been known since the 1950s as a place frequented by sex workers, almost like its own red-light district. A reporter from the *Vancouver Sun* even called it a "union shop for hookers." By the 1970s, up to 100 sex workers a night used the Penthouse as a safe and convenient spot to meet clients. A taxi driver from that time, Paul Dixon, recalled seeing "ruts that ran like streetcar tracks in the road from the Penthouse to a couple of West End apartment buildings, or to hotels where the tricks were staying.”

The Penthouse itself was a popular spot for entertainers, reporters, and local show business people. The Filippone brothers, who ran the club, were known for bringing acts like Louis Armstrong and Sammy Davis Jr. to Vancouver. They also had a history of breaking liquor laws and getting fines for bootlegging. While the Filippones didn't directly profit from sex work, they understood that having these women around boosted the club's revenue, as sex workers and other patrons paid a cover charge. So, they generally looked the other way.

However, things changed in 1974 with the appointment of new chief constable Don Winterton and vice squad head Inspector Vic Lake, both of whom were determined to tackle downtown prostitution. In the summer of 1975, undercover police hid in a camper van across the street, photographing patrons entering and leaving the nightclub. A raid followed that December, and the Penthouse was shut down. This led to a three-year court battle that the Filippone brothers eventually won on appeal.

But in the years the club was closed, many believe that sex workers were pushed onto the streets of the West End and into less safe neighborhoods. Retired detective Grant MacDonald said that the Penthouse was "never a problem" because "it was controlled there." After the trial, he noted, "the hookers poured out into the streets all over the city." The West End became one of those areas, hosting not only women who had been at the Penthouse but also a growing number of cross-dressing male sex workers. By the early 1970s, this was happening along the 1100 to 1300 blocks of Davie Street.

In October 1971, a *Vancouver Sun* article by Lisa Hobbs, titled "Pretty Men with Sex For Sale," reported a rising number of cross-dressing men working in Vancouver, with as many as "100 transvestite prostitutes who streetwalk." Hobbs wrote that while many residents and police didn't care what happened behind closed doors, the activity on West End streets at night was becoming a community problem. She described one cross-dressing sex worker named John, who went by Diane, as someone who would "stop automobiles, bargain openly over a price, and accost any adult pedestrian male who might prove to be a customer." Hobbs called Diane "a disturbing element of real perversity."

The West End was already undergoing significant changes by the mid-1970s, growing twice as fast as the rest of the city and facing its share of growing pains. In August 1974, Serge Jean Leroux, 33, was found stabbed to death in a West End lane, a crime that remains unsolved.